When It All Ends
by Unlucky Talli
Summary: Five meteors crash land in the Titan's home of Jump City. At first, it seems that the meteors pose no threat, until the Titans realize that the meteors brought down something even more threatening than they anticipated.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. They belong to DC Comics and Warner Bros.

This story was inspired by DC's "Batman: No Man's Land" and the song "The Howling" by Within Temptation.

Enjoy.

* * *

Prologue

There was blood _everywhere_.

The blood was splashed all over the walls, the floor; the stuff even dripped slowly from the ceiling. But what stunned Raven the most was that the blood wasn't human blood. No, this blood was _green_. And the stench was something else. Raven felt like she was suffocating the smell was so foul; or possibly she unconsciously refused to breath in order to keep the putrid scent out of her nostrils.

Raven tried to determine where the blood had come from, but everywhere she turned she came face-to-face with another blood soaked wall. She tried to keep herself focused, but the foul smell of the blood was keeping her from concentrating. She began to get dizzy.

She almost didn't notice the slight movement coming from one end of the room, she was so distracted. Raven snapped her head around to face whatever had moved. Black aura covered her hands as she narrowed her eyes at whatever she was looking at.

A large black shadowy mass was hunched at the other end of the blood soaked room. The thing was making irregular rasping noises as if its lungs weren't functioning properly. Its body was oozing green fluid that poured slowly to the floor of the already green room.

The thing unraveled itself from its hunched position, revealing itself to be a ten foot tall creature that looked somewhat like a demented werewolf. What seemed to be fur was mangled and twisted around its body, making the creature look even bigger than its ten foot size. It sported crystal green eyes that glinted with malice and psychotic intentions. The green blood was flowing from a large gash in the creature's side.

"What are you?" Raven barley whispered.

The thing opened its jaws to reveal huge, sharp teeth covered in thick, dripping saliva. It made some sort of a hissing sound that quickly pitched upwards into an ear shattering squeal. Raven only had a spit second to marvel at the pitch that the creature was able to reach before spasms of pain racked through her head. She couldn't do anything but fall to the floor and attempt to bear the pain. But the creature's shrieking became louder and higher, and Raven was sure that her head would split open—

Raven awoke gasping from her nightmare, with the creature's howls echoing through her head.


	2. Falling

I do not own Teen Titans.

* * *

Chapter 1 – Falling

Starfire woke up feeling warm and comfortable in her bed. She almost regretted getting up out of the position she was in, but she was excited for the new day. After a quick shower and getting dressed into her uniform, she was floating merrily through the halls of Titans Tower on her way to the kitchen for breakfast. Two large mechanical doors flew open for her as she approached them, revealing the living slash Ops room, the kitchen, and the other Titans that were momentarily inhabiting the room.

Cyborg was currently munching on the waffles he just made, making pleased "Mmm" sounds as he ate. Beat Boy was in the kitchen making non-dairy waffles for himself, being a strict vegetarian. Robin was sitting in front of the Tower's mainframe, keeping on the lookout for any trouble that might occur in the city.

"Good morning, friends!" Starfire exclaimed cheerfully as she hovered into the room.

"Mmmoring." Cyborg managed to blurb out between his waffle crammed lips.

"Hey, Star. Could I interest you in some non-dairy waffles?" Beast Boy asked.

Robin gave a weak half wave in Starfire's direction without turning around. Starfire frowned slightly at his response, but decided against making it a big deal. He was obviously too busy for any sort of light conversation.

Starfire turned her attention to Beast Boy, "No thank you, please. I do not feel like consuming waffles this morning, dairy or non-dairy."

Beast Boy's ears drooped slightly, but then perked up again. "Hmm, more for me then," he stated softly to himself as Starfire rummaged through the fridge.

At that moment the doors to the multifunctional room opened to reveal a fully cloaked Raven. She was walking slowly down the steps towards the kitchen when Beast Boy decided it was due time to open his mouth again.

"Dude! Raven, could I interest you in—"

"No." Raven stated bluntly, cutting him off.

Robin spun around in his chair. Even though Raven's reaction wasn't something rare and out of the ordinary, he'd noticed something in Raven's voice. The one word she had just stated quavered slightly. Now _that_ was rare. Something was wrong.

"Raven?" The Boy Wonder stood up and cleared his throat. "Is everything okay?"

Raven looked up at him and sighed. "Nothing ever gets past you."

Cyborg swallowed the last of his waffle. "What's going on?" He asked.

"It's nothing. I just had a bad dream. No need to worry about it." Raven stated in response.

"Are you sure that your dream can be taken lightly?" Robin asked.

"Psh, guys, guys, guys. Don't worry about it." B.B. said, with a wave of his hand. "If Raven's dream was really _that_ bad, we would have already been swallowed up by crazy shadow pterodactyl things." The other Titans glared at Beast Boy, who shrank back a bit. "Heh, I was just kidding."

Robin turned his attention back to Raven and raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know," She said in response to his previous question. "The dream didn't even make any sense."

"Tell us about your dream, Raven," Starfire said.

"Alright," Raven pulled down her hood to reveal her violet eyes, and the bags that had formed during her sleepless night underneath them. She began her retelling of her strange dream of the room, the blood, and the creature. When she was done, the Titans were all silent. Nobody seemed to know what to say, until—

"Ew," Beast Boy put in, obviously grossed out by the amount of blood that Raven had described.

"But what does it mean?" Starfire asked.

"It doesn't mean anything, Starfire. It was just some stupid nightmare that I had that has no relevance to anything." Raven said, giving off waves of embarrassment.

"If you say so," Robin said. "But if you have a dream like that again I want to know right away. Okay?" He gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

Raven looked up at him and gave him a faint smile. "Okay."

Just then the alarm began to blare though out the tower. Cyborg ran up to the mainframe.

"There's been a break-in at the jewelry store at the Jump City Mall!" Cyborg yelled over the alarm. "Looks like the HIVE 5 have nothing better to do now that the Brotherhood has been stopped!"

"Well then, you know what comes next," Robin said glancing at his teammates. "Titans GO!"

* * *

At the mall the HIVE 5 were causing heaps of trouble. Frantic shoppers were running left and right, unable to fully comprehend what was really occurring. A large behemoth of a guy, named Mammoth, ran through the mall carrying a bag full of diamonds and other jewels. He swatted away any innocent bystander who got in his way.

"Move you puny lint-lickers," Said Gizmo, who, ironically, was about the height of a five year old himself. At the moment though, it didn't appear that way, as he was wearing a back pack that sprouted four mechanical spider legs, each about twice the size of a normal adult, so he towered above the scattered shoppers.

"Hey, Billy, that's a fine catch," One of the Billy Numerous' said to another, pointing to a gem his doppelganger was holding.

"Aw, thanks Billy," The other replied.

"Guys, I really think we should hurry and get out of here," SeeMore said.

Next to him his silent HIVE companion, Kid Wicked, nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. Quit your whining." Gizmo said, kicking one of the shoppers aside with his mechanical legs.

Just then, a sonic blast burst through the hallway of the mall and hit Gizmo full in the chest, sending him sprawling backwards. He landed on the ground in a heap of metal and jewels.

"Stop right there, HIVE," Robin commanded as he made his appearance in the mall along with the other Titans.

"See, this is what I was worried about," SeeMore mumbled to himself.

"Get outta the way!" Mammoth yelled as he charged straight towards the Titans. As he came near, Starfire moved in front of him, pulled back her fist, and struck Mammoth square in the jaw. Mammoth flew head first all the way to the other end of the mall.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Robin shook his head. "They always have that crazy idea that they'll win." He turned to his teammates. "Should I say it again?"

"Don't bother." Cyborg said as he charged forward.

* * *

About twenty five blocks away from the mall, a fourteen year old boy by the name of Zachary Granger sat at table outside of a fancy Italian restaurant with his single mom and his mom's friend. Why he had to come along for the little lunch gathering was what stumped Zach at present moment. He'd rather be at home right now playing Game Station, but no, his mom made him come.

_We barely get to go out. _Zach silently mimicked his mother, before turning back to his own thoughts. _Psh, this is no fun! I wish something interesting would happen right about now. . ._ Zach then proceeded to conjure up interesting, more often impossible, scenarios in his mind to quench his boredom.

* * *

On the other side of the city in a dark alleyway, a creature stirred. It walked down the alleyway and stopped at a nearby trash can. It pawed at the can until it fell over and the creature began digging away at whatever was inside. Suddenly, a door opened in the alleyway, pouring light over the creature. The creature was a large scruffy black dog, with mangled dirty fur, which didn't do much to hide the dog's skinny figure. Around its neck was a faded collar with a tag dangling from it. The tag had the name "Hunter" stamped across it.

"What the hell?" The man who opened the door exclaimed. "Shoo! Get the hell away from my trash, you rat!" The man pulled out a broom and began whapping the dog with it. The poor animal immediately stuck its tail between its legs and ran into the darkness of the alleyway.

* * *

In the middle of the city, the bell at Murakami High School rang, signaling that school was out for the day. A blonde girl walked up to her locker to put her unneeded books away. Her two friends walked up to her.

"Hey, you're coming to my party this Saturday, right?" Her African American friend asked.

"Hmm, I don't know. I'll have to get back to you." The blonde responded.

"Oh, come _on_. It'll be fun!" The blonde's other friend, a red head, joined in the conversation.

"I told you, I'll think about it." The blonde responded, slamming her locker door shut. She walked outside, followed by her two friends.

"What are you doing this Saturday then, since you can't come to my—" The girl stopped. She stared open mouthed towards the sky.

* * *

The blonde turned around to see what was wrong with her friend, and then followed her friend's upward gaze.

A black dog wandered through an empty street of Jump City. Its ear twitched and the animal snapped its head up to look at the sky.

Zach was glad that lunch was finally over so that he could finally go home and play—_What the hell?_ The dark haired boy asked himself. He quickly turned to him mom. "Hey, mom! Mom! Look at the sky! Look!"

* * *

At the Jump City Mall the Titans were monitoring the arrest of the defeated HIVE 5.

"Dudes! Did you see me at that one time when I pummeled Mammoth into the floor as a—" Beast Boy didn't get a chance to finish.

"Don't you think we were all a little too busy to watch you turn into a bunch of animals?" Raven interrupted.

Beast Boy smiled. "Yeah, you _were_ a little busy dealing with that bad boy Kid Wicked." He nudged Raven in the side and gave her a wink.

Raven was just about to slap Beast Boy upside the head when suddenly there was a scream.

"Look in the sky!"

The Titans snapped their heads up just in time to see five ebony meteors fall crashing to the ground.


	3. Crash

I do not own Teen Titans.

* * *

Chapter 2- Crash

The noise was like thunder. The five meteors hit Jump so hard that every window seemed to shatter. Dust clouds flew out from each crash, shooting debris in every direction. The Titans were immediately attacked by the dust. They would have been completely covered if it weren't for Raven, who quickly put up a shield around the Titans and anyone else nearby.

"What the shit?" A man screamed. "Where the crap did those come from?"

"They were moving so fast." A woman stated.

"Titans," Robin began, taking control. "There were five of them from what I saw. I want us to fan out and locate each one. Tend to anyone who was injured. I want each of you to report the situation of each of your meteors to me as soon as you can. Titans GO!"

The Titans spread out, Robin rushing to the nearest one. He dodged the people crowding around the fallen meteor. There were many whispered conversations between the gathered bystanders, many which held the same question: _Where did they come from?_ Robin couldn't help but ask himself the same question. One moment, Jump seemed almost peaceful, with the threat of the HIVE 5 terminated. The next thing he knows five large meteors crash land into his beloved city, with no warning that they were coming.

_It all happened so fast._ He thought, finally reaching the meteor. He suddenly became racked with guilt, knowing that he and his team had taken no action to stop the meteors from impacting the ground.

"Step back please." Robin half ordered, half suggested to the bystanders, gently shoving several of them in the opposite direction of the meteor. Many people were gawking at it, due to either its large size or sudden appearance. Little children tugged at their mum's and dad's sleeves and pointed at the hunk of rock as if their parents hadn't already taken notice of it.

Robin slowed his pace as he drew nearer to the meteor. The oversized rock was right smack in the middle of 5th street and lodged half way into the ground. He became close enough to notice that hovering around it was a thin layer of fine black dust. A slight breeze rushed by, taking some of the tiny particles with it. Robin grabbed is cape and held it up across his face. He didn't want to risk breathing in the alien dust.

He pulled out a scalpel from his utility belt and scraped at the rock, taking a small chunk off. He then placed the pebble into a pocket of his belt. He once again reminded the crowd to not go near the fallen meteor. Then he immediately pulled out his Titans COM link.

"Titans," He started. "I don't want any of you to get too close to the meteors, and make sure to keep all civilians away as well."

"Got it," Came four replies.

He looked around and surveyed the area. Robin noticed that several people nearby were injured badly, thanks to the shrapnel projectiles. No sooner than he proceeded to tend to the injured that the sound of distant sirens filled his ears.

* * *

At Murakami High School, a blonde girl and her two friends were thrown into coughing fits. One of the five meteors had landed in the street directly perpendicular to their school. The dust had spread down the street and had covered the school and the students standing outside. Still coughing, the blonde tried to look past the dust and at the hunk of rock.

She was only able to croak out one word, "Wow," Before she began coughing again.

Her red-headed friend seemed to be completely entranced with the fallen rock. Before both she and her friends even realized, the girl began to run towards it. The blonde's other friend hesitated for a split second before chasing after her.

"Hu—Hey!" The blonde yelled. She put all of her energy into her legs as she ran forward, surpassing her African-American friend, and stopping her red-headed friend by grabbing her around the wrist.

"What are you doing?" Red asked. "We've got to go see what's going on! Come on. How often does anything like _this_"—she pointed towards the rock—"happen?"

"We don't know what _this_ is! You don't know where _this_ came from!" The blonde exclaimed breathlessly to her friend. "It could be dangerous!" Her friend huffed, pulled out of the blonde's grip, muttered something that sounded quite like "You're not the boss of me", and ran off; the blonde's other friend hot on her heels. "And quite frankly," The blonde paused as she spotted a golden skinned, purple clad girl soar gracefully to the ground in front of the meteor. "I don't like _this_ at all."

* * *

Zachary Granger was running like a madman, his mother's calls fading as he put distance between himself and her. He had to see it. He had to see the thing that fell out of the sky. It hit the ground two blocks away from where he and his mother were walking home. The impact the thing made with the ground had shook the earth, making he, his mother, and everyone around fall flat on their ass. The moment the tremor stopped, he was up on his feet and running. He didn't care what his mother thought; _he was going to see it_. Zach dogged in between fallen pedestrians, but soon skipped onto the street. Traffic had stopped entirely; the drivers were stunned silly and were taking their time to get out of their cars.

Zach rounded a corner and saw it. It was a giant ebony meteor, or was it an asteroid? He couldn't tell. _I have a 'C' in Earth Space Science for a reason_. He mused. Well, either way, the thing had fallen on top of an apartment building. The whole wall of the building was missing and many apartments had been reduced by half. The floors looked as if they had been eaten away by a giant mouth. Zach narrowed his eyes up at the building, and noticed that several tenants were staring down at where their floors used to be. He was so spellbound by the whole situation that it never occurred to him that several people might have been crushed by the meteor.

Zachary moved ever closer, showing no signs of stopping his approach to the meteor. People loosely gathered around the rock, but none of them noticed the dark haired boy; if they did, they did nothing to prevent him from nearing it. Zach finally stopped directly in front of the meteor, so close he could reach out and touch it. _Touch it_? A slithery voice echoed through his mind. _Yeasss, touch it. Go on_. Without even realizing what he was doing, Zach reached out and gently dragged his fingertips across the surface of the meteor—

Two cold, powerful hands urgently clamped around Zach's shoulders. Zach jolted, his heart catapulted into overdrive, and he began to struggle against the hands, until he heard a friendly voice from behind him.

"Hey, kiddo. Whoa now, calm down. Cyborg's not gonna hurt ch'ya." Zach wrenched his head around to face the robotic Teen Titan. He received a warm smile. "Sorry to scare ya' like that, but I really need you to stay away from this here meteor."

_So it is a meteor_. Zach thought as his mother's cries reached his ears again. _Aw crap_.

"Zachary! Zachary Jonathan Granger! Get your speedy ass over here right now!" Zach turned in the direction of her voice. Her face was flushed and she was out of breath; he idly wondered how she was still able to yell at him. But he felt a sudden pang of guilt when he looked into her eyes, which were filled with terror and worry for her son. "Don't you—_ever_—run off like that—again. Do I—make myself clear?" She spoke between gasps.

Zach heard the mechanical Titan chuckle softly behind him. "Don't worry ma'm. Your son is perfectly A.O.K." Cyborg placed his large hand on the small of Zach's back and lightly pushed the boy towards his mother. "I just think he needs to go home."

Mrs. Granger had half the notion to yell at the bulky teenager standing in front of her. _Who does he think he is, ordering me around_? But she realized that now was not the time to argue about his authority. It was his job to handle situations such as these. She glanced up at the meteor, and then looked down at her son. She sighed, grabbed the upper half of her son's arm, and half dragged him from the crash site. "Come on, Zach, time to go home." Her son perked up slightly from her calmer demeanor, thinking he was out of the dog house. "But no more game station for a week." Zach quickly lost his smile.

* * *

A green harpy flew above the skyline of Jump City, searching for one of the five ebony meteors. As it flew into one of the shadier parts of Jump it secretly wished that it could turn back. But there was a job to be done, so it flew on. It spotted the meteor and sharply swooped down towards it. Before the harpy reached the ground, it transformed into Beast Boy, who landed lightly on his feet. He looked up at the meteor, a little bit of awe showing in his eyes. Beast Boy snapped back to reality; he had a job to do. He ushered the few gathered people away from the rock.

So occupied he was in keeping the civilians away from the meteor that he didn't notice the black dog that slinked out of a nearby alleyway. The dog slowly approached the meteor and sniffed it, gathering in the alien rock's scent. Several dust particles flew down the dog's nostrils, and it abruptly sneezed.

Beast Boy's ears caught the sound. He turned and regarded the dog. "Hey!" He half yelled at the animal. He didn't want to frighten it. Nevertheless, the dog spun on its heels and raced back into the alleyway of which it came.

* * *

Several hours later the Titans were back in their tower. They had been dismissed after the police had taken control of the civilians and the streets. All of the injured had been swiftly taken to the Hopewell Hospital in central Jump City and were being tended to with love and care. Scientists from S.T.A.R Labs had shown up to carefully gather data about the meteors to send off to one of their sister labs in Phoenix, Arizona, which better specialized in meteorology and natural disasters.

Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy were all gathered in the living slash Ops room. Robin had gone off into his lab to analyze the pebble that he extracted from the meteor. Cyborg was momentarily at the Titan's mainframe uploading pictures he took of his meteor. Starfire stood behind him, watching the uploading photos flash across the screen. Beast Boy was slumped on the couch, hoping that Cyborg could hurry up so he could watch T.V. Raven was beside him, reading a book about meteors she picked up from the Titans' personal reference library. She was trying to gather as much information about the topic at hand, but finding it slightly difficult to do so; the topic was so _dull_.

Beast Boy decided to break the silence. "Why are you guys so interested in these asteroids anyway?"

"Meteors," Cyborg and Starfire replied simultaneously. Raven rolled her eyes behind her book.

"Same difference," Beast Boy mumbled. "But seriously, it's not like _meteors_ haven't fallen out of the sky before. I mean, it happens to Smallville all the time." He shrugged.

Cyborg gave a small laugh. "Smallville is an exception B.B."

"How so?"

"It just _is_."

"That's not a good reason!"

"Stop talking."

The boys were silenced by Raven's command. Once again the Ops room became flooded with thick silence. That is, until Starfire asked a question that had been on all their minds.

"Why did we not see them coming?" She prompted. "Why was there no warning of their approach? Certainly someone must have known." Her eyes were still glued to the screen.

"Not sure, Star." Cyborg replied. "But we're bound to find out."

* * *

Okay, so nothing really happened so far; next chapter is when everything really begins.


End file.
